One gruesome alternative would be to poison their food supply with something slow acting and/or psychoactive. There's chaos, maybe some rioting, lots of people die, we swoop in and slurp her memories along with anything else we want, stab ourselves and make it look like a prisoner did it and then jump to another body in some safehouse. However I don't think Esme would approve of indiscriminate murder.
I don't think we should tell any lies but we shouldn't be too forward either, in case one of those people that can see the past come to investigate. We should say we're working against the state and want her for information. Promise to keep her safe and snuggle her off the country (assuming Esme can arrange for that). If she agrees to that, I think we should just go with breaking her out, along with some other prisoners to make it look like she got out in the chaos of an unrelated prison break. Maybe some of the prisoner names we got are of people belonging to some kind of Mafia-like organization that would be likely to break them out, so by letting them leave we can deflect some suspicion. Then once we get her out safely we can have a normal conversation without risking someone overhearing us. And if things go sideways we can always fall back on the "eat her memories" plan.
What kind of options do we have for breaking someone out? Could we steal a gateway vehicle from someone and get away with it? Or maybe kill a horse and keep it nearby to carry her away? How about explosives, could we use those to break a wall down like they do in westerns?
Finally, in order to avoid communication problems with Esme, could we safely leave a skull or head or something back in the library, in case we ever want to leave but also have a messenger there that can do better than screeching? I'm thinking we give her a small bone hidden in a ring or locket or sock or something like that that can be on her at all times and vibrate to let her know we want to call, maybe even give her some information about the reason we're calling depending on how it moves. Then depending on circumstances we either take over the skull and have a face to face conversation or we command it to speak. Maybe two skulls so we can have one for taking over and another for commanding.
You consider the situation until Esme returns. She puts her packages down on a table and walks over to where you're seated, staring up at the ceiling with your feet on the table as you think
"Hows it going?" she asks, sitting on the table next to your feet.
You tell her about your idea for communicating by skull and bone first.
"Seems a good idea. Though, can you inhabit a single bone? Is there a limit to how broken up the body can be and still be a valid target for...whatever it is you're doing? And can you talk through things that shouldn't be able to? We know you can speak through things that shouldn't be able to speak normally, like skeletons, but does that mean you could 'speak' as just a small bone? If so, we could forgo the skull all together."
You tell her you're not really sure. Its something to check. You take a deep breath and tell her about your plan. Her face darkens as you go on. By the time you're done she is staring at the floor, or rather staring through, off at some distant place within her own thoughts.
"Listen." she finally says, not looking over to you, "I don't think you understand what you're asking for. Getting you in to talk to her, that we can do. Or at least we can give it a shot. If we fail that, the chances of you being found out are minimal, assuming you don't leave any huge clues for them to follow. But breaking her out? That's...You'd basically be asking everyone involved to die for that. Even if we manage to smuggle her out -something I cannot get anywhere close to promising by the way- you think they won't come after us? Won't bomb her ship as she sails? Won't try to intercept her between the prison and that ship? She's a former -maybe current- ally of the state's number one enemy. They'd scorch the Earth. That's the issue here. We could break her out but we'd never get away. The only possible way we could do this and it not be a damn suicide mission is by making sure she's not missed and that they don't know there even was a prison break. The only way to escape them is by tricking them into thinking there is no reason to search for her in the first place.
Anything else, deflection or misdirection or whatever won't matter. They'll follow her, they'll read her history, they'll see us, they'll hear us, and they'll find us. Mafia or not, it doesn't matter because they'll be tracking us
personally. Not the mafia or some nebulous spy organization, but you and me. "
She looks at you very hard.
"If you can think of a way to do that and convince me it will work...then I'll try to convince others. But this is NOT the sort of thing we can half ass or play by ear. Not unless you want a death squad kicking down our door. That plan," She points to her bags which presumably contain the snake and drugs, "That I can get behind right now. Hell, I'm more behind killing her and absorbing her memories than trying to break her out. At least in that plan only she has to die, as opposed to all of us..."
You can tell Esme isn't just afraid, but angry. Frustrated. She said before that they'd tried things like this, that it had always ended in the death of everyone involved. You can imagine she's lost friends to it, lost important information, had to run and hide, hoping not to be on the receiving end of whatever a government kill squad is. You nod to her and think a moment. You ask her if fire would work.
"What?"
Fire. If fire burning a body would prevent it from being able to be tracked. If it could, then that might be the key to it. Same plan as before, but instead of sneaking in to talk with her, you could start a fire. Sneak her out in the chaos, making sure to leave a body behind to get burnt beyond recognition. It would give you cover to escape, hide the fact that she's gone, and make it all seem accidental.
Esme clenches her jaw and thinks. "I don't know if fire will stop them. It depends on how their abilities work. Ideally don't want them to even think they need to look into it. Them not looking is the only way we can be positive they won't see us." She runs her hand across her hair as she thinks, unconsciously fussing with the braid and bun. "Assuming you can trick them into believing she's dead and the fire was an accident, how are you going to get her out? There will be guards everywhere, sentries, lookouts, and about 30 miles of wilderness between you and the check point, let alone civilization. If you take a vehicle, they'll know. If you run on foot they'll see you, or at least there is a good chance of it...."
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Topic: The Left-Hand Path (Read 116523 times)